OVER A LATE AUGUST WEEKEND in 1989, the birth centenary year of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh founder KB Hedgewar, more than one hundred thousand people gathered in an open-air amphitheatre in the Buckinghamshire town of Milton Keynes. This extraordinary occasion constitutes one of the most iconic and spectacular moments in the history of the Hindu nationalist movement overseas, although it is far less well-known than, say, the post-2014 international Modi rallies. The Virat Hindu Sammelan—Great Hindu Assembly—has even been referred to as the largest individual gathering of Hindus ever outside India. One online account referred to it as a “mini-Kumbha Mela,” and claimed it involved the support of “over 300” Hindu organisations and hosted more than fifty gurus and leaders of various sampradayas, religious fellowships, from India and elsewhere. It was organised by a substantial, specially assembled committee, with representatives of the Vishva Hindu Parishad, United Kingdom and the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh at the helm. The event, which also produced one of the most comprehensive documents of British Hindutva, in the form of a 250-page “souvenir” publication, was infused with the iconography, ideology, and leadership of the Hindu nationalist movement.
As well as tying in with the anniversary of Hedgewar’s birth, the Ram temple movement, which was now approaching fever pitch in India, constituted a crucial context for the Sammelan. Photos of the event depict a rarely seen example of a diaspora Ram shila ceremony—consecrated bricks, painted with “Shri Ram Shila: Virat Hindu Sammelan UK,” in both Hindi and English, are seen laid out on a crisp white table cloth beside a garland of bright orange marigolds. Another picture shows various gurus, event organisers, and external guests—including the Mayor of Milton Keynes—anointing the bricks on a specially constructed stage.
Performing this ritual connected the participants at the Sammelan to a transnational movement of assertive Hindu chauvinism that culminated, just three years later, in the violent razing of a mosque 4,500 miles away—a pivotal and heinous moment in the history of Indian democracy.
The Milton Keynes gathering has been briefly discussed by some scholars—including Stacey Burlet, Chetan Bhatt, and John Zavos—but on many levels it remains enigmatic. What drove Hindus to congregate in such massive numbers for this festival? How was such an impressive panoply of Hindu and Hindutva leaders assembled on one stage in the Midlands? And why was the event so singular? One response to these questions is prosaic: because a group of people took it upon themselves to organise something of great ambition and scale, which at the time had not, and has not since, been attempted. There are many more specific factors as well: the year it was held was not just the birth centenary of Hedgewar, but also the twenty-fifth anniversary of the VHP’s formation.
This story was originally published in caravanmagazine.in. Read the full story here.
